Today’s Song of the Day comes from Eason Chan. This is the kind of song that make him such a great singer in my mind, but the kind of song that people choose to forget. Originally from the album So Hot (track 2) during his EEG days, it’s “Low-class Animal.”

Today’s song of the day is from Denise “HOCC” Ho for her possibly existent figurative balls to actually criticize Mark Lui for copying foreign songs. While the artists he’s worked with such as Kelly Chan and Miriam Yeung has supported Lui publicly, HOCC is the first pop singer to even possibly hint at Lui’s “songwriting.” So today, from her album “Our Time has Come,” it’s “I Wish I Can Learn to Put You Down.” Funny, both titles just somehow seem so appropriate for Mr. Lui….

I had originally heard today’s song as a live rendition from Sandee Chan’s live album (disc 1, track 8). Though she’s known as a songwriter, the song was curiously written by Cheer Chan, who tends to write relaxing acoustic tunes, not haunting ballads like this. It was also originally sung by Karen Mok on her 1999 album “This is Karen Mok” (which I managed to find a second-hand copy in Hong Kong for less than US$2, where she sings the song in her best Faye Wong/Cranberries type of delivery. Anyway, it’s beautiful and poetic, and it’s “Do Not Love Me.”

There’s no MTV for it, but this live version by Karen Mok is surprisingly good and close to the real thing.

If someone asks me what kind of music I like, I honestly have no idea how to answer. Just when I thought I have a handle on one genre, I find something else in another genre that I like, then the music I like just becomes a mishmash of whatever is out there, with any consistency ruined by my indecisiveness. Today’s Song of the Day is one of those songs. I first heard this song as an acoustic cover by Frente!, only to realize that I’ve come to like the original even more. At least enough taht I’ve done it on Karaoke Revolution. From New Order’s 1986 album Brotherhood, it’s “Bizarre Love Triangle.”

Here’s Frente!’s cover, the one that started it all

Today’s song of the day may be Hong Kong legendary rock band Beyond’s most rebellious song, though you probably can’t tell that from their fashion and smile-filled introduction. You don’t even have to know Chinese to know they’re angry - the last lines of the chorus is “We don’t need you anymore/go to hell!” Most recently found on one of their many compilation discs, it’s “Can’t Be Forever.”

The idea for today’s song comes from Miss Japan’s victory at the Miss Universe contest. It’s the perfect time to use the boy group SMAP to tell all Japanese women that they’re beautiful (well, at least all the women that passed the audition). I agree with them too. From their latest album Pop Up! Smap, it’s “Dear Woman.”

SMAP:Dear WOMAN
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And what better way to remind them that than a shampoo commercial? The text says “The women of Japan are beautiful.”

Just look at those perfect heads of….hair.

With the death of Zard lead/only singer Izumi Sakai, The Golden Rock feels it’s only appropriate to choose a Zard song for today’s Song of the Day. However, since I don’t know much Zard songs, picking this song from its title seems like a natural choice. From the album “Forever,” it’s the title song “Forever.”

I don’t write about them much on this blog (probably because they broke up a few years ago), but I’m a fan of the British band Suede. After they broke up, lead Brett Anderson and former Suede member/mortal enemy Bernard Butler formed The Tears and has so far released only one album (Brett Anderson released his solo album earlier in the year, but I haven’t heard it yet). That’s where today’s song of the day is from. Even as a Suede fan, I have to admit that The Tears’ “Here Come the Tears” sounds like a pale imitation of Suede, but today’s track is still quite good (that’s why it got chosen today). It’s “The Ghost of You.”

Today’s song of the day is again an alternate version that is probably not available on any record. From the Zazen Boys, who seem to make a very unique type of freeform rock that mixes R&B sensibility, it’s “Kimochi” from their first album. Except this is the live version featuring Shiina Ringo.

You can find another live version here, but embedding was disabled, so just clicked on the link.

I heard this song from the Hong Kong radio programs I listen to when I’m at the gym. They released this song on the radio around the time they were plugging YUI’s album (Midnight Sun had just left theaters at that point too), so I would literally listen to it quite a bit over the course of the 10-hour minidisc I recorded the programs on (don’t freak out, I pay for the access to the archive). And it’s been stuck in my head ever since. From the album Can’t Buy My Love, it’s YUI’s “I Remember You.”

Note: The video was shot in Kamakura, where I went during my trip in January. It’s an absolutely beautiful city even if you don’t want to go to the temples and shrines there.